The federal government will present the budget for the fiscal year 2018-19 for approval from the National Assembly on April 27, 2018, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs Miftah Ismail said on Friday.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Ismail said that the government has taken all political parties into confidence about the budget, which he said would be presented on April 27 before the five-year tenure of the incumbent government ends on May 31.

He claimed that the tenure of the outgoing government saw a decline in foreign loans and a rise in local loans.

“The PML-N government added 12,000MW of electricity to the system while work is underway on power projects worth 20,000MW,” Ismail claimed, adding that areas where people regularly pay bills no longer experience load-shedding.

The adviser claimed that Pakistan is now ranked on the fifth spot globally in the race for economic progress and international institutions have been rating Pakistan’s economy positively.

Speaking at the press conference, Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal said the revenue collection at the end of the previous government’s tenure was Rs1,946 billion but the PML-N government has set the tax collection target of Rs4,013bn for the next year.